Blurb:
He thought Alaina loved him, but now she’s found someone else.
A tidal wave of loss and grief swept over Henry Gallant, leaving him undecided
about what to do next, or how to move forward.
Despite
his sorrow, he goes on a dangerous mission to an invading aliens’ home world in
the Gliese-581 star system. There he uses a neural interface to penetrate their
communication network and steal a high ranking alien’s identity. Through this
artifice he learns about their history and society, and discovers a way to
hinder and possibly defeat them.
A
side-effect of linking into the alien network—which was created for autistic
savants—is that Gallant’s mind was stimulated and enhanced to the point where
he begins to experience superintelligence abilities.
Upon
returning from his mission, there is concern that Gallant might pose an even
more serious threat than the aliens. While he struggles to fend off those who
doubt his loyalty, he fights to win back Alaina.
This is
the fourth book of The Henry Gallant Saga, but it can be read as a standalone
story.
Excerpt:
Alaina
told him to leave.
Gallant
thought they were in love, but now she’s found someone else.
He’s
racked his brain—sifting through the wreckage of their relationship—trying to
piece together what went wrong.
A tidal
wave of loss and grief has swept over him, leaving him undecided about what to
do next, or how to move forward—which is ironic because he’s always prided
himself on his ability to reach difficult decisions during a crisis. Is this a
crisis? Maybe it’s worse because his brain is numb and won’t process facts or
ideas—it just kept replaying the breakup over and over again.
***
TWO
MONTHS EARLIER . . .
The
Warrior was Henry Gallant’s first command. It was the culmination of everything
he’d worked for since entering the academy. Her rocket-shaped hull was over a
hundred meters long, equipped with stealth technology, an antimatter sub-light
engine, and a dark matter FTL drive.
The ship
was on course for Elysium, a warm-water planet with oceans coving ninety per
cent of its surface and dotted with numerous islands supporting abundant life
including birds, mammals, reptiles, and a multitude of plant life. Home to a
displaced United Planets’ colony, it was the second of five planets orbiting
Tau Ceti, a mustard-yellow dwarf star about 11.5 light-years from Earth.
Sitting
in the command chair, Gallant noticed that the bridge was unusually quiet
despite the background hum of machinery and the chatter of the bridge crew.
There were no alarms, or sirens, or exclamations of concern, all of which was a
good thing, but in his heighten state of anticipation he was left with an eerie
sense of emptiness.
He could
barely contain his excitement at the prospect of seeing Alaina for the first
time in nearly a year. His mind was alive with memories—many of which included
Alaina’s alluring figure—quickening his pulse. There was nothing auspicious or
dramatic about the images—it was just their sheer untimeliness and incongruity
that was troubling.
Standing
up abruptly, he shook my head to cast off my distracting torpor.
All eyes
on the bridge turned toward him.
Chagrinned,
he drew a breath and sat back down.
Author Bio and Links:
You can
visit his Web site at: http://www.hpeteralesso.com/Default.aspx
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Thank you for the excerpt!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post and the giveaway!
ReplyDelete